ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

Lefty journalist: Obama seeks 'state media'

'They want everything to look like MSNBC'

Drew Zahn covers movies for WND as a contributing writer. A former pastor, he is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view." Drew currently serves as communications director for The Family Leader.

Another progressive journalist has spoken out, warning the Obama White House is part of a “war on journalism” that’s whitewashing the truth and seeking a “state media” that will parrot its positions without investigating its wrongdoing.

He even said the White House wants “everything to look like MSNBC,” adding, “That’s not real journalism.”

Jeremy Scahill is the national security correspondent for the Nation, a left-wing publication with articles on its webpage about “GOP voter suppression,” the “anti-choice movement” and titles like “The Progressive’s Guide to Holiday Giving.”

Scahill appeared on the Dec. 5 episode of the syndicated program “Democracy Now!” to discuss the British police’s investigation of the Guardian for publishing leaks from National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Scahill blasted the British government for intimidating and punishing the press, but warned it’s prevalent all over the world – including in the Obama administration.

“There is a war on journalism right now,” Scahill said. “And in some countries, like Mexico, it comes in the form of journalists being assassinated on an almost weekly basis by narco-cartels or people that have links to the Mexican security forces. In Somalia, journalists are killed – being killed in record numbers. There are a couple of dozen journalists missing right now in Syria.

“And then, in Western societies, you have, on the one hand, President Obama saying that his administration is going to be the most transparent in history and that they want to be friends with the press; and on the other hand, they are monitoring the metadata of journalists, they are seizing phone records, they’re trying to compel journalists to testify against their sources, they’re trying to figure out who journalists are talking to within government so that they can go and indict those people,” he continued. “That’s what they did to the Associated Press. They went after the aggressive team there – Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo and Kim Dozier and others – who were investigating the CIA. And they went to try to figure out who was talking to them. And then it resulted in the indictment of a, I believe he was a senior FBI official.

“They will go after the whistleblowers who are providing independent information to journalists, and then leak their own information that makes them look noble and like they’re winning the day for peace, freedom and democracy,” Scahill said. “They were a total sieve in the aftermath of the bin Laden raid, and everything they said was total – was a total lie, basically, that bin Laden had grabbed a wife and put her in front of him and, you know, all of these things.”

Scahill explained while there’s no First Amendment protections for journalists in England, in America the press is protected by the Constitution.

“We’re seeing this intensification of a war against journalists and journalism,” Scahill said. “When all three branches of the government are colluding against the interests of the people, it’s the responsibility of journalists and journalism at large to hold them accountable. But this White House, like Bush before, Bushes before, they seem to want only state media. They want everything to look like MSNBC. And that’s not real journalism.”